Ori And The Will Of The Wisps Dev Partners With Charity To Save The Rainforest

Developer Moon Studios has announced a partnership with iam8bit and Skybound Games to send money directly to a nonprofit organization aimed at preserving the tropical rainforests.

From now until December 13, five percent of Ori and the Will of the Wisps sales on Nintendo Switch will go to the charity Rainforest Trust, a US-based environmental organization focused on purchasing and protecting tropical rainforests and the endangered wildlife inhabiting them. In addition to the small-scale contribution, iam8bit is also donating $25,000 to the nonprofit.

"iam8bit's very first game as a publisher is Ori and the Will of the Wisps on Nintendo Switch. As a publisher, we considered how best to spend the game's marketing budget, and decided to shake things up to try and make a positive difference with that money,” iam8bit co-owners Jon M. Gibson and Amanda White said in a press release. "As we've worked with Moon Studios to publish the Ori series on Nintendo Switch, we've been struck by their dedication to expressing nature as a living, breathing entity worthy of protection. Following their lead, we wanted to do our part to preserve nature, and are excited to work with the wonderful and dedicated people at Rainforest Trust to do just that."

Fans can purchase physical editions of Ori and the Will of the Wisps from retailers like Amazon and GameStop, pick up the Collector's Edition directly from iam8bit, or grab the game digitally from the Nintendo eshop. All three options will see five percent of the purchase automatically go to Rainforest Trust, with iam8bit reporting the fundraiser's success the following week. For those who already own the game, they can donate directly to Rainforest Trust's website.

iam8bit shared a brief video announcing the partnership, which started by saying that about 31,000 square miles of rainforests are destroyed every year. Check out the video below.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps hit Nintendo Switch on September 17. We scored the game a 9/10 in our Ori and the Will of the Wisps review (which has been updated to include comments about Xbox Series S and Series X), saying, "Will of the Wisps was always an impressive visual showpiece, despite the technical flaws that initially held it back."